Notes

An outstanding bespoke museum commission of international importance, and an important example of Structuralist tendency in architecture in the second half of the 20th century, emphasising the user's experience and of a sense of place, and in particular, making the most of the interior and exterior interface with the surrounding landscape. The Burrell is a rare and significant post-war commission for a museum building in Scotland, devised as a megastructure, and is an influential example of a large public architectural commission in the UK. Important projects for galleries and museums have only appeared more recently in the 1990s with the conversion of existing buildings and extensions to existing institutions such Glasgow's Gallery of Modern Art, or the National Museum of Scotland as prime examples.
The building is representative of later Modern architectural theory interested in personal responses to space, invoking a return to a human vernacular architecture rather than placing an emphasis on the façade. The Burrell Collection building could be described as an organic strand of traditionalism, taking cues from the 20th century Nordic tradition in architecture, however incorporating fragmented formalist elements.
Gasson's Burrell Collection is a furthering of the 1958 concept for the Louisiana Museum of Contemporary Art near Copenhagen by Jørgen Bo and Vilhelm Wohlert, which used a sequence of long narrow galleries ensuring that the exterior wooded setting remained intervisible with the museum objects, preserving a sense of immediacy between inside and outside. Aldo van Eyck's, Sonsbeek Sculpture Pavilion at Arnhem, 1966 (reconstructed at Kröller-Müller Museum 2006) espoused his renowned 'labyrinth clarity' by creating a sequence of events and encounters, with relatively little attention paid to the façade and this may have also influenced Barry Gasson Architects' concept of an unarticulated exterior for the Burrell, which demonstrates zones of glazing emerging from the heavier sandstone elevations, but here also includes references to early Christian architecture through the mock chapel entrance block. A 'muted historicism' is invoked with an overall result of 'self-effacing informality' (Calder).
The building provides an inspiring setting for Glasgow shipping magnate, Sir William Burrell's, vast collection of art and antiquities bequeathed to the City of Glasgow in 1944 under strict instruction that the collection be kept intact and housed at least 16 miles from the centre of Glasgow to ensure that the objects would not be contaminated by the city's industrial pollution. When Pollok House and its policies became available in the late 1960s, Burrell's trustees agreed to change the condition of the bequest and allow the collection to be located 3 miles from the centre of Glasgow in a generous parkland setting. The competition for the new museum building was launched in 1970 and Barry Gasson's practice was appointed in 1972. Gasson, Andresen and Meunier's design was distinguished from the other 241 entries by its positioning within Pollok Park nestled into the woodland at the edge of the open parkland, deliberately integrating the exterior with interior along the glazed north-facing wall. Construction began in 1978 and the building was opened officially by Queen Elizabeth in 1983. The project cost was £16,500,000.
Sir William Burrell (1861-1958) lived at 8 Great Western Terrace Glasgow and at Hutton Castle, near Berwick-upon-Tweed, Scottish Borders, from circa 1927 (purchased in 1916) until his death in 1958. The reconstructed Hutton Castle rooms include items from the hall, dining room and drawing room. Burrell's vast collection consisted of over 8,000 items and focused on late Gothic and early Renaissance Europe. The collection also contains outstanding examples of Chinese art, French and Dutch paintings, Islamic art and objects from ancient civilizations. Some of the architectural fragments included in the building came from 16th century Hornby Castle, Yorkshire.
Gordon Barry Gasson OBE, ARIBA, an English architect, studied at Birmingham University, Columbia University in New York and completed his MA at Cambridge University where he later taught. By 1970 he had formed a partnership with John Charles Christopher Meunier as Barry Gasson & John Meunier. The practice is credited with few commissions (Museum of Agriculture, Baghdad, 1975) concentrating almost exclusively on the Burrell Collection. In 1987 Gasson was practising under his own name with an office in Glasgow.
Brit Andresen RAIA (Australia) studied architecture at Trondheim University Norway qualifying as Sivil Arkitekt in 1969. She became a Registered Architect in Queensland, Australia and has taught architecture at the University of Cambridge, the Architectural Association and the School of Architecture and Urban Planning UCLA (Master of Architecture Program).
John Meunier ARIBA, AIA (US) studied at Liverpool, Harvard and Cambridge, and later taught at Cambridge from 1962 to 1976. Meunier moved to the United States in 1976 teaching successively at the University of Cincinnati and Arizona State University, also publishing widely on architectural education.

Buildings are assigned to one of three categories according to their relative importance. All listed buildings receive equal legal protection, and protection applies equally to the interior and exterior of all listed buildings regardless of category.

ACategory A

Buildings of national or international importance, either architectural or historic, or fine little-altered examples of some particular period, style or building type. (Approximately 8% of the total).

BCategory B

Buildings of regional or more than local importance, or major examples of some particular period, style or building type which may have been altered. (Approximately 51% of the total).

C(S)Category C(S)

Buildings of local importance, lesser examples of any period, style, or building type, as originally constructed or moderately altered; and simple traditional buildings which group well with others in categories A and B. (Approximately 41% of the total).